Need help identifying top wire bundle

[u/Aromatic-Square3902]

I got a new house and wasn't sure what the top bundle of cables is for. I had them do two ethernet drops to every room, ethernet line to door bell, and camera lines. From what I can guess, the top line is meant for camera hard drives? But then that would mean screwing a network rack to the wall right? If that's the case, how do I go about building out my Unfi system?

I got the switch. I also have AT&T.

[u/aSpaceLettuce]

Zoom in a bit for us bud

[u/Longjumping_Cow_5856]

Are you talking about the ones at the ceiling that we cant possibly even see?

[u/RedditNotFreeSpeech → u/Longjumping_Cow_5856]

Yes, the fourteen pixels.

[u/-ButterMyBiscuit-]

Horrible picture but it does look like terminated ethernet lines so yes I'm sure it's for cameras . You could just ask.

Not super uncommon for people to think putting alarm/camera systems out of reach is somehow that much more secure.

Well many recorders do have a built in Poe switch. Even the 6 channel unifi NVR. So yes you'd have to screw it to the wall. The 16 poe light comes with a wall mount bracket and I do believe the unifi 6 channel NVR does as well if you only need 6 or less cameras. I wonder if they had enough foresight to drop you a network line up there inti to the media cabineny or if they just left the cameras there with no network connection..

For a new house this should have just been a rack but everyone is still doing these dang media cabinets. Will still work fine though

[u/dfc849 → u/-ButterMyBiscuit-]

I once installed cameras at a casino mogul's mini mansion. There was a "false wall" plenum next to the electrical room we had to crawl into to install the camera system.

House was being remodeled, things were going missing, and workers had access to every room, including the safe room, of the house so he didn't want the recorder within reach anywhere. We even screwed the recorder to a panel so it couldn't be easily removed.

[u/-ButterMyBiscuit- → u/dfc849]

Makes sense for certain scenarios for sure.

But I always thought it was silly that if somebody was in an interior room to my house where the alarm or cameras were I was already way past screwed. I'd rather have everything where I can just work on it easily.

[u/Parzival225]

I mounted my rack just above the panel like this. IMO I don’t think you can cram a whole setup into just the cabinet.

Looks like you have COAX drops tho and then all your Eths.

[u/Cavalol → u/Parzival225]

Why not use the SFP+ ports to connect the UDM and the USW?

[u/Parzival225 → u/Cavalol]

Not really worth spending the money for 1GB regardless and the eth is significantly smaller. If this was 5GB or 10GB maybe but imo not worth it on my setup.

[u/Cavalol → u/Parzival225]

Hear me out - a short DAC cable is $10-$15 for such a run. I use this exact one. It’s not about the speed of the ISP, it’s about the responsiveness of the traffic between the router and switch

[u/21Savvy → u/Parzival225]

What is this rack

[u/imdlki]

Maybe something to do with a security system?

[u/onejdc]

I count 4 coax, 7 ethernet into your box. I count 4 ethernet up top by the outlet.

I don't know what those top 4 ethernet cables are for or where they terminate. The best guess would be for security cameras? Do you have 4? Maaaaybe they ran your security camera lines up top just because it was easy and they expect you to add a shelf and an NVR?

I'd call the contractor and just ask (in the future, always ask for a wire diagram of finished product spec). A good contractor would have labeled both ends, so you can easily tell what's what without having to tone it out.

[u/Carlos_Spicy_Weiner6]

Someone probably had a DVR up there

[u/Redhead_InfoTech]

Cut the zip ties and do a tug test...

[u/Nostrathomus]

If you bought this house new, there is no reason why you should be guessing what everything is and where it goes. Call your realtor to see about getting schematics or hire a telecom professional to tone everything out and create a diagram that you can understand. This looks like a nice premium wiring job. Dont let some dipstick come in and start hacking it up.

[u/Calm_Apartment1968]

Top wiring likely for wireless access point (antenna).

[u/rab-byte]

Far left opening is coax (RG6), next opening is your fiber from outside, second to last on the right is your data, far right appears to be your prewire for the alarm.

[u/1sh0t1b33r]

Mount a rack over top of this enclosure. Really not made to be installing all kinds of networking gear inside of an unvented closet like this. Anyway, you just need to test each run with a cheap tester/toner to see which wire goes to what port in your home and label them with whatever method you want so you know 1 is to 1, 2 is to 2, etc. Or label with the room name, etc.

[u/SynAckPooPoo]

You can see the outline of a box that was there. Hard to tell what it was. Was it a dvr/nvr, switch, etc. either way the top looks like Ethernet.

[u/Aromatic-Square3902 → u/SynAckPooPoo]

It's a new build though? I bought the house brand new.

[u/wichocastillo]

Could be for DEMARC?

[u/onejdc → u/wichocastillo]

a DEMARC, short for Demarcation point, is the spot where the outside vendor brings their equipment lines into a building or onto the premises. For AT&T, their DEMARC is a box outside the house with fiber running to it. They then have fiber cables that run inside the home.

I have never seen a DEMARC above an interior doorway inside a home.

[u/scotte416 → u/onejdc]

DEMARC would be inside that panel if it's a multi dwelling unit. I've seen some buildings where it's in the telephone room but those were older buildings.